Early morning light spilled across the wild coast of northern Vancouver Island, painting the sky pink and mountains lavender as bands of fog rose from the tranquil sea. Moving quietly and carefully along the rocky shore, Maxime Légaré-Vézina took in the dreamlike scene. The wildlife photographer had ventured west from his home in Quebec City hoping to photograph one thing: bears.

After nearly an hour of walking, he sensed movement: it was a lone black bear, silhouetted against the sunrise. “The bear got closer and closer, then it looked up at me,” says Légaré-Vézina. “That’s when I got the shot.” Captured with a 600mm lens and a 1.4x teleconverter, the resulting portrait is captivating and intense. Half the bear’s face glows gold, the other half is in shadow. “It’s probably in my top 10 photos of all time,” says Légaré-Vézina. “Everything lined up exactly as I wanted.”

Légaré-Vézina’s photography journey began more than a decade ago, ahead of a trip to Australia and New Zealand. “Back then, the iPhone was not as great at photographing as it is today,” he says. “So, I got my first camera [a Pentax K-r] and started playing around with it.”

What began as a casual hobby quickly morphed into a passion; three years ago, the 36-year-old left his banking job to pursue photography full-time. Since then, he’s devoted himself to observing wildlife, learning about animal behaviour and honing the patience needed to capture unique portraits of his subjects in their natural habitats. How’s it going? “So far, so good — I’m not bankrupt yet!” he jokes.

As part of his prize, Légaré-Vézina begins a two-year term as the inaugural Audain emerging photographer-in-residence with Canadian Geographic, a role that will see him shoot on assignment for the magazine. “There are so many places in Canada I want to photograph,” he says. “My passion is … to travel, discover new places, new species and live this life of adventure.”

Terrestrial Life

Winner: Jean-Simon Bégin

A Canada lynx leads her kittens out of the northern Ontario forest during a heavy snowfall. Lynx have broad, snowshoe-like paws that enable them to move quickly and quietly through deep snow.

Runner-up: Reece Buruma

A raccoon kit, soaked from a recent rainfall, forages at Marthaville Habitat Management Area in Petrolia, Ont.

Aquatic Life

Winner: Alex Côté

A common merganser chick dives in search of juvenile bass in the shallows of Quebec’s Lake Memphremagog — a risky endeavour, according to the photographer. “On several occasions, the adult bass tried to eat the little chicks, but the mother managed to rescue them in time!”

Runner-up: Maxwel Hohn

Salmon migrate up B.C.’s Campbell River to spawn. The photographer hid in the shadows of a canyon to capture the fast-moving fish.

Flora and Fungi

Winner: Jillian A. Brown

While crews battled a wildfire near Squamish, B.C. that put the community on high alert this past June, the photographer captured the deadly beauty of flames consuming moss on a rock face.

Runner-up: Haolun Tian

From above, an algal bloom in Dog Lake, near Kingston, Ont., looks like a work of abstract art. Previously thought to occur only in heavily polluted areas, overgrowth of algae has become a problem even in remote lakes due to the combined effects of landscape disturbance and climate change.

Things With Wings

Winner: Leslie Poulson

A northern spreadwing is coated in droplets of morning dew in B.C.’s South Chilcotin Mountains. This damselfly is found at high elevations and near ponds and lakes throughout Canada.

Runner-up: Trevor Lowthers

The photographer’s use of low-level flash makes this female wood duck appear to be disco dancing as the sun sets over Dartmouth, N.S.

Honourable Mentions

Eli Wolpin

A squat lobster guards the entrance to its beer bottle den in Whytecliff Park, a protected area and a popular diving spot in West Vancouver, B.C.

Keri Fisher

A metallic sweat bee collects pollen from the anther of a lily in the photographer’s garden in Kemptville, Ont.

Artur Stanisz

An Arctic hare rests on a hillside in the shadow of Mount Thor on Baffin Island, Nunavut. As autumn advances, the hare’s coat changes from brown to white for camouflage.

Brandon Broderick

New growth reclaims an area burned by wildfire near Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

Christy Grinton

A sea otter pup cuddles up to its mother near Port Alice, B.C.

Jean-Christophe Lemay

The photographer spotted this red fox hanging around near some fast-food outlets in Rimouski, Que. Though they have adapted to survive in our ever-expanding cities, urban foxes are more likely to be injured or killed by cars.

Tom Halligan

A compilation of images captures the activity of hundreds of fireflies as dusk falls on a late spring night near Lakefield, Ont.